Why Stephen Colbert Went on His Most Furious Trump Rant Yet

Among his fellow late-night hosts, CBS’s Stephen Colbert has carved out a niche of playful indignation: a distinct blend of prankish energy, witty wonkery, and scorching burns aimed toward Donald Trump and always delivered with a smile. But on Monday night, the Late Show host took things to the next level, delivering a two-minute barrage of insults that ran the gamut from silly to scathing. Colbert has certainly hit the president with a volley of insults before, but Monday’s felt particularly concentrated. But why now?

Colbert’s lightning round of insults capped off a monologue that reviewed the president’s weekend of interviews. This included a sit-down between the president and CBS’s own John Dickerson, during which the president explained, among other things, just how voluminous his tax returns are. (Colbert introduced the clip by saying, “Mr. President, can you talk about your tax returns as a metaphor for your penis?”) Things took a turn when Dickerson asked Trump if he still stood by his wire-tapping claims against Barack Obama, but that wasn’t what set Colbert off. Instead, Colbert was responding to an earlier moment when Trump insulted Dickerson, calling his program Deface the Nation to the anchor’s face.

“Donald Trump, John Dickerson is a fair-minded journalist and one of the most competent people who will ever walk into your office. And you treat him like that?” Colbert responded incredulously. Then he began to twist the knife: “Now, John Dickerson has way too much dignity to trade insults with the president of the United States to his face. But I, sir, am no John Dickerson.”

As Colbert explained, he was enacting a policy he dubbed “the Tiffany Way: when you insult one member of the CBS family, you insult us all. Bazinga!” And from there, the insults began.

“Mr. Trump, your presidency? I love your presidency. I call it Disgrace the Nation. You’re not the POTUS. You’re the BLOATUS. You’re the glutton with the button. You’re a regular Gorge Washington. You’re the presi-dunce, but you’re turning into a real prick-tator. Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine. You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign language gorilla who got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s [censored] holster. Your presidential library is going to be a kids’ menu and a couple of Juggs magazines. The only thing smaller than your hands is your tax returns, and you can take that any way you want.”

It took less than two days after his inauguration for Trump to hit his first speed bump. After photos revealed a drastically smaller crowd at Trump’s inauguration than at Obama’s first, Trump griped about the coverage during a speech at the C.I.A., and claimed that “a million and a half people” showed up. He later backed down from the remarks, but not before two things happened. First, the world was introduced to Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, whose first, apoplectic, rumpled press briefing became a flashpoint of its own. And second, Trump aide Kellyanne Conway introduced “alternative facts” into the lexicon.